CN Board Member wins Honda Prize

CommerceNet’s newest Board member, Prof. Raj Reddy, has added a new honor to his surely-crowded mantelpiece. This time, it’s for the potential impact of robotics towards a cleaner environment.

Reddy Awarded 2005 Honda Prize From the Honda Foundation

The Honda Foundation has awarded Carnegie Mellon University professor Raj Reddy with the 2005 Honda Prize for his work in computer science and robotics, particularly as it pertains to “Eco-Technology” that is not only efficient and profitable, but also environmentally friendly. Reddy was recently honored as the first recipient of Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Mozah Bint Nasser Chair of Computer Science and Robotics, and was co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee from 1999 and 2001. His achievements in artificial intelligence earned him the ACM’s 1994 ACM Turing Award, while his work in developing countries secured him a Legion of Honor in 1984. The Honda Foundation cited Reddy’s status as founding director of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and his commitment to accepting and teaching researchers from companies and universities all over the world in an effort to improve the international robotics community. “As a result, robotics has become one of the most promising technological areas for today’s industry as well as future society in the sense that it helps create more harmonious relationships between man and nature through the involvement of intelligent machines,” declared the foundation. Carnegie Mellon Provost Mark Kamlet pointed to Reddy’s current attempts to bridge the digital divide through the PCtvt personal computer and the Million Book Digital Library. Dean of the School of Computer Science Randal Bryant lauded the professor for his dedication to the concept of technology that improves the quality of life while keeping humans’ environmental impact to a minimum. Reddy’s areas of study include AI, human-computer interaction, and speech and visual recognition by machine.